In a blog post published by Atlantic Council, Ukraine’s Digital Transformation minister analyzes the progress of digitalization in his country amid the war and its significance.
In spite of the horrors of the invasion, “Ukrainians continue to open new businesses, get married, pay taxes, and apply for financial assistance from the state.” To a large extent, this “remarkable resilience” has been made possible by Ukraine’s digital revolution, Fedorov says.
A digital tool like Diia has “become a routine tool for millions of Ukrainians,” with “the realities of the Russian invasion further embedding the app into the country’s everyday existence.”
With “growing levels of public trust in the digital state,” the better part of the population has “overcome any initial fears related to the pace of digitalization in the country and now openly embrace Ukraine’s digital revolution,” according to the minister. “People are no longer paranoid about the possibility of personal data leakages and have stopped worrying about how elderly relatives will cope with smartphone technologies.”
Ukraine’s resilience amid the war has also shown that fears of over-reliance on digital technologies — couldn’t they backfire in the event of restricted access to electricity or the internet? — are largely unfounded. “Ukrainians have now debunked this myth by maintaining high degrees of digital connectivity throughout the fall and winter months of the past year, despite the blackout conditions created by Russia’s large-scale bombing campaign against Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure,” argues Fedorov.
“Businesses continued to operate and online services remained available as the nation adapted,” leveraging satellite internet, Starlink, and power generators.
“This achievement should dispel any lingering doubts that governments across the world will all eventually go digital. As they embrace digitalization, other countries can look to Ukraine as a model and as a source of inspiration,” the minister concludes.
Read the blog post in full.
